


The Waking Lights: The Meteoric Rise of Draco Malfoy

by sunsetmog



Series: The Waking Lights [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Epistolary, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:41:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24359002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunsetmog/pseuds/sunsetmog
Summary: Draco Malfoy ends up reinventing himself. On Instagram. And TikTok, as it turns out.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Series: The Waking Lights [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1766590
Comments: 52
Kudos: 383





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This owes a debt of gratitude to:
> 
> 1) Niall Horan's quarantine dedication to being a) topless and b) showing us quality Roomba content on his Instagram.  
> 2) Draco Malfoy's secret agonies.  
> 3) **FeelsForBreakfast** for letting me ramble in their Tumblr messages about a) Draco, b) his secret agonies, c) his meteoric rise to influencer fame, and d) his oblivious almost-relationship with flatmate/photo editor/secret best friend Harry.  
> 4) **Harborshore** for reading this through and assuring me it made some sense.  
> 

_**The Waking Lights: The Meteoric Rise of Draco Malfoy** by Joe Penrose_

_[Photo: Draco Malfoy barefoot and in jeans, shirt open, eyes shielded from the sun. Caption: [This page] Instagram influencer Draco Malfoy is wearing Levi 511 Slim Fit jeans in indigo sky, destructed, (£95) with a Slim Barstow Western Shirt in worn black.] [Photo: Draco Malfoy topless and leaning against a wall wearing only jeans. Caption: [Opposite] Draco Malfoy wears Acne Studios 1996 Trash Jeans, distressed. (£250, Liberty London)]_

It is hard to know what to make of Draco Malfoy. If I only looked at his Instagram posts, I'd expect nothing more than a moody, half-naked glance into the middle distance demonstrating impeccable cheekbones, a penchant for not buttoning up his clothes if at all possible, and a possible deal with the devil to ensure he only ever be photographed in perfect light. His Tumblr is an impossibly curated show home for an aesthetic that won't be satisfied with anything less than perfection. His TikTok account shows a lean towards the dry, with regular, weekly videos (soundtracked by the kind of music not out of place on a mid-00s _The OC_ soundtrack) of him decorating a Roomba with greenery and wild flowers - "I steal it all," he tells me, as he lights his first cigarette of the interview. "I don't even have a garden."

"We have a window box." This from his flatmate/assistant, Harry Potts, who features in the majority of Malfoy's Instagram stories, and pops up fairly regularly on TikTok, primarily as part of Malfoy's _Harry, Show Me How_ series. At the request of Malfoy, Potts explains things like how to put bread in the toaster, and how to microwave scrambled eggs. Their intended audience might, perhaps, be aliens. Draco remains straight faced and inquisitive throughout. So far, Roombas have not featured in his _Harry, Show Me How_ series, despite featuring frequently in their own greenery decorating slot. I ask if there are plans to feature the decorated Roomba, and take the opportunity to remind Draco that his biography across all his social media is _Roombas are Evil_. He stares into the middle distance. For a moment, I'm entranced by his cheekbones and forget I've asked him a question. Have I asked him a question? I wait, regardless, for an answer. 

"They're metaphysical," he says finally. I'm not entirely certain that's in anyway related to what I might have asked, but as I've forgotten the question, I feel somewhat validated by the answer. 

"He's scared of the Roomba," Harry Potts tells me, providing Draco with a cup of coffee in a reusable cup. I'm not sure if he's joking. Harry's role in Draco's life is somewhat fluid and Malfoy chooses not to provide clarity. They are their own category on the popular fan fiction site _Archive Of Our Own_ , and at the time of writing, sport 1,254 stories detailing their inevitable relationship culmination of a happy ever after. Rumours abound about the nature of their relationship, particularly on Twitter and Tumblr, but neither Malfoy nor Potts comment on it. Potts wouldn't; he doesn't have social media. "I just use Draco's," he says. "I edit his pictures."

It's possible that's a euphemism. 

Potts is, at least partly, responsible for Malfoy's unscheduled arrival on social media just over a year ago. "He wanted to know what the teenagers were doing over the other side of the road every evening. He was busy smoking out of the window and looking moody. So I bought him his first phone."

He can't mean his very first phone, not in this 21st century world of smartphones and Twitter, but Malfoy doesn't comment. He doesn't comment on much, it turns out, although he does look spectacular in each of the pairs of jeans he models for us, our stylist choosing to forego the option of shirts when it turns out Malfoy is more than happy going topless and barefoot. Malfoy is always barefoot. 

"Harry always wears socks," Malfoy says, when I point this out to him. It is, perhaps, the only answer I'm going to get. 

In this age of career influencing, Draco Malfoy might be nothing particularly special. Impeccable cheekbones and a well-curated Instagram feed does not by itself create the kind of meteoric career rise that Malfoy has seen over the last year. Indeed, to those of us not au fait with social media, (TikTok is the social media craze allowing users to create, edit, and view 15 second videos, for those of us confused even by the name, Instagram is the video and photo sharing social network, and Tumblr defies definition, but for the purpose of this article we'll go with 'microblogging'), then the idea of creating a career out of using them seems nonsensical. But Malfoy has defied the odds and risen, stratospherically, to the top in under a year. 

"I don't know why," Draco says, lighting another cigarette in between takes. He's graduated to not even buttoning up the jeans we're photographing him in. They cling, like a temptation unto heaven, on his narrow hips. I feel dazed. Harry Potts looks dazed. Our photographer keeps taking pictures even during our breaks. A tattoo taunts us, just the glimpse of something more, curving out from the waistband of his underwear. I feel like a changed man. "It's probably luck."

"I think it might be the hotness," Harry Potts says, somewhat under his breath. He's only saying out loud what we're all thinking. Draco doesn't react. As of next month, he will have his own range of underwear. This will join his existing range of candles, sunglasses, Instagram filters, and excruciatingly popular lip balms. There is a range of men's toiletries due to be on the shelves at Superdrug by Christmas. I imagine an aftershave must be on the horizon. His first range of candles sold out in less than an hour. It is impossible to get an appointment at his hairdresser's, although Malfoy is in there often enough, documenting haircut after haircut. He launched the career of tattoo parlour _DT's_ , which now has a four month waiting list for appointment slots. Malfoy highlights his tattoo experiences on his Instagram page; not counting the rather gruesome skull and snake he sports on his left forearm, his seven other tattoos are all courtesy of the elusive DT. He is, entertainingly, terrified of both needles and the experience of getting tattoos. Despite already sporting his skull/snake combo, he practically has to be held down for his first tattoo with DT. The camera keeps rolling. He documents his fear unflinchingly and at the end, there's a lion tattooed on Malfoy's right forearm. The accompanying TikTok comes with a soundtrack of Smooth Criminal. It's a compelling insight into the power of editing, given that the same content hits like a 180. The fear's gone. It's just bravado. I ask if Harry Potts edited it. 

"That one was all Draco," Potts says. They don't make eye contact. I'm not sure if he's telling the truth. 

Like Robert Pattinson before him, occasionally Malfoy appears to be bewilderingly confused by existing in society. It makes for entertaining content. In an interview with Radio 1's Nick Grimshaw, Malfoy pretends not to know who The Beatles or One Direction are. It is, of course, unlikely that Draco Malfoy is an alien in the manner of Ford Prefect from Douglas Adams' _Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ , but occasionally it is easier to believe that this is true than the alternative, which is that he really doesn't know who The Beatles are. I ask him about it in between jeans shots.

"I know who The Beatles are," he says. 

"Of course he does," Harry Potts says. He turns to me, and immediately contradicts himself. "Draco's parents didn't approve of popular music."

I imagine the Malfoy parents. Staid, elderly, dry. I have to imagine them, because the internet has no mention of them, at all, and Malfoy doesn't speak of them. Whoever they were, they exist as far out of society as perhaps Malfoy once did. Malfoy is notoriously elusive before his Instagram appeared, as if by magic, last year. In a world where our every action is documented online somewhere, Malfoy exists nowhere prior to his arrival on social media. It's the kind of gap that's normally compelling to a journalist, except both Malfoy and Potts laugh it off. 

"We're there," they tell me. "Of course we are. Where else would we be?" Exactly. 

Exactly. 

I can't help but ask about One Direction. Just in case. 

Draco's jeans are unbuttoned and hang off his hips. They're too long and he walks on the hems as he turns to face me. I can imagine my mother telling me to pull them up. I think Harry Potts would rather Draco Malfoy's jeans stay exactly where they are. I don't judge him. I couldn't. I feel the same. 

"One Direction?" Draco says, his gaze somewhere over Harry Potts' shoulder. "I know what makes me beautiful."

_[photo: Draco Malfoy sits on top of a wall, knees up, topless. Caption: Draco Malfoy wears WHO DECIDES WAR by Ev Bravado distressed straight jeans in black (£770, Selfridges)]_

Speaking of magic, either Malfoy or Potts is an editing wunderkind. Some of the world's best analysts (Tumblr users) have taken apart Malfoy's Instagram stories and TikToks frame by frame to find the editing gaps in Malfoy's sleight of hand videos. They swear they're not there. I ask him if there are any plans to take up a second career as a magician in the future, given his sleight of hand skills. 

"It's all editing," he tells me, as he changes jeans right in front of me. 

"Harry?" I ask. 

"Both of us," he says. "I'm learning."

I believe him when he says he's learning. The last year has passed impossibly fast, and Draco Malfoy has left no offered opportunity unexplored. Is it greed? Maybe. I ask him. 

"The compelling fragility of not standing still," Malfoy says. He stares at me and I stare back. 

The Draco Malfoy I've met today should be in direct contrast to the Malfoy in his videos, the one that hid behind the sofa when Harry Potts turned the Roomba on by remote whilst Malfoy was mid-greenery decoration, or the one that woke Harry Potts up in the middle of the night bellowing "What is that monstrous beeping?" and when a mostly-asleep Harry said, _the Roomba probably needs charging_ , replied, "The monster needs feeding?" before hiding in a cupboard.

And yet, they are very clearly the same person. The sleight of hand videos, the model shots, the bickering over socks vs. not socks with Harry Potts, the self-titled product lines. In this world where influencing careers exist and we can't stop them, all I can say is that Draco Malfoy is definitely one of the more interesting social media personalities out there. 

I ask Malfoy, finally, if there's anything he'd change about himself. He stares into the middle distance for a while. His cigarette burns down. I realise I haven't seen him smoke any of the cigarettes he's been holding throughout our interview. 

"I'd be less of a coward," he tells me finally, stubbing out his cigarette on the wall he's leaning against. "I'd be a hundred times braver than I ever was before. Can I keep these jeans?"

We let him keep the Levis. I look back as we walk away. He's holding hands with Harry Potts. I don't know if that answers a question or just asks another one. He's a calculated enigma. I take a picture on my phone, and walk away.

I go home and follow him on everything. And if I order one of his lip balms, no one ever has to know. 

_[photo: Malfoy and Potts holding hands against a brick wall; sunset. Caption: I messaged Malfoy and asked if we could use the picture. He said, and I quote: There's no escaping the past. Go ahead._ ]

Draco Malfoy can be found across the internet: @draco.


	2. Chapter 2

Draco ends up taking the package from the postman and Harry ends up signing for it, which is par for the course given that Draco refuses to touch the electronic signing-for device. 

"So?" Harry asks, coming back inside a minute later. Draco is face down on Harry's bed. "Is it that bad?"

"This is the greatest day of my life," Draco says, rolling over onto his back and holding the magazine up in Harry's general direction. "The greatest day. I no longer suffer from agonies. I am agony free."

"That's good," Harry says, amused. "Is it how hot you look in the jeans? Can I see?"

"Oh no," Draco says, biting his lip. "It's not that at all. They get your name wrong. You're the most famous wizard alive, and _they don't know your name_. Agony free, Potter. I'm free of all suffering. They call you Harry Potts. All the way through. This is glorious."

Harry rolls his eyes. "You are more famous than me here."

Draco rolls his eyes right on back. "Come here and read it with me, Potts."

"You're lucky I love you," Harry says, and Draco holds out his hand for Harry to take. "Agonies, what on earth."

**Author's Note:**

> [Rebloggable Tumblr Post](https://magicalrocketships.tumblr.com/post/619028777632235520/the-waking-lights-the-meteoric-rise-of-draco).


End file.
